Emotional instability disorder - personality disorder

[NeedsAsockamnesty]

Can anybody please give me a bit of insight into this and how interpersonal relationships/ friendships work.

I'm just hoping to get a bit of feedback to help me support someone a bit as they have successfully pushed everybody else away think they are coping but aren't won't seek any therapeutic support other than frequent GP visits have been prescribed Prozac and an antiphycotic but only takes the Prozac because the other pills wipe them out and they end up sleeping 20 hours each day. Self medicates with alcohol thinks it helps but it very obviously causes problems the alcohol they use in a binge drinking sort of a way.

I'm becoming increasingly confused and finding it hard to work out what there real feelings and wants are as it can change hour by hour as well as trying to work out if and when the person is having real issues or if they are just using it as a cover for being an arsehole (Im half wondering if there is a bit of a mix of the two)

I don't mean that in an unpleasant way and I expect it would sound less bad if I gave examples but it's really hard to do so without giving to much info off the top of my head.

Basically people with BPD misinterpret other people's behaviours towards them due to faulty, underlying thought patterns and paranoias so something which may be well-intentioned on your part could be perceived as a personal attack and will cause the sufferer to go on a defensive attack back.

If you want to give certain examples I can try and explain them from a BPD point of view.

Also, you saying that their feelings/wants change on an hourly basis. Well, this is the essence of BPD/ emotionally unstable PD.

There are real, biological differences between the BPD brain and the NT brain. People with BPD experience emotions at a much more intense level, and for longer than you might do. It is a "proper" mental disorder in exactly the same way as bipolar or ASD.

I describe it myself as living with the volume up to 11

Thank you kindly saucyjack

Things that stick out are finding a love letter from my ex (screwed up in the bottom of a pile of junk) this prompted for some reason an entire day of crying bombarding me with odd disjointed angry messages

No reason other than they dislike my ex, this person is not romantically linked with me.

Telling lies,obvious great big ones.

Randomly taking it apon themselves to attempt to cultivate relationships with my friends and family by sending them messages on social media making arangements with them under the guise of a nice surprise for me. Then approx 15 mins before they are due to go collect the none driving ones calling me telling me the surprise plan but announcing they are having a bad day so I have to drop everything and go pick these people up (5 hours in the car for me).

Once they overheard a phone conversation between myself and a close friend next time they saw this friend they repeated what had been overheard and implied I had disclosed. Promoting much anger from my friend.
Then when I pointed out that it was inappropriate locked themselves in their flat for a week getting blind drunk and avoiding everything.

Obtaining dogs re homing them after a couple of weeks and then reacting as if they had experanced the death of a very close family member.

I would guess that most of the time they are barely functioning or managing life but it's very obvious they think they are coping fine

I think saucyjack has given a good explanation of this disorder. You could also look on the MIND website where you will find more information. It does tend to be a "catch all" diagnosis sometimes, when nothing else fits and until relatively recently wasn't perceived as a treatable mental illness. There isn't very much in the way of treatment as far as drugs are concerned - you mentioned Prozac and an anti-psychotic. People suffering from BPD are not usually psychotic so maybe your friend? has a more serious mental illness. BPD usually has its roots in sustained ill treatment and trauma in childhood.

I'm wondering what your relationship is with this person as you refer to they - and it's good of course that you want to support him/her given that everyone else has been pushed away and given up.

I've intentionally attempted to keep in none gendered as I find people respond very differntly dependant on that.

It's a good friend of mine.

They haven't said why the antiphycotics all I can say is I've seen nothing in all the years I have known them that suggests scary towards others type behaviour. I have noticed self harming and other forms of hurting themselves

Depending on the antipsychotic they can: work as an antidepressant, help to curb impulsive behaviour, help sleep, help anxiety. They're not just used to treat psychosis.

There are some major anxiety problems and impulsive behaviour.

I value this person care about them but am struggling with many aspects of their behaviour because it's impacting on me

Yes I think Saucy Jack's description is really spot on. DBT can help with that, do you know if your friend has been offered this? (Dialectical Behavioural Therapy)? Also there are some good books that may help you both .. as dontrunwithscissors said yes the antipsychotics aren't likely to have been prescribed for psychosis. I was told that I was definitely not psychotic but they gave me an open prescription for what is known to be an anti-psychotic drug to deal with impulsiveness, which I'm not struggling with at present but they said it's there if I need it. So far not needed it. But yeah .. Saucy Jack's description is spot on. I think it also depends hugely on how much insight your friend has into what she's got ... if that's very little I reckon the behaviour will be full on (and tbh it sounds that way). I have personally found that the more insight I have into this the more I can recognise if my thinking is a bit, er, shall we say, leftfield ;)

The friend thinks they hide the condition well and whilst being offered all sorts of therapy and support turns it all down because they don't feel they need it.

At the moment they are running on a cycle of 1 day good 7 horrendous and have been like that for about 5 months